K12 Headlines

3/20/2015

The New Jersey city's school board will vote to approve a budget proposal for next school year that calls for the elimination of more than 220 positions to help close a $17.3 million budget gap for the 2015-16 school year.

Los Angeles teachers and school district administrators are doing battle once again after 18 rounds of contract negotiations. Given the potential long-term impact of any settlement, it is a shame that a major stakeholder can't be at the negotiating table. Namely, college graduates considering whether to pursue a teaching career.

Massachusetts' well-intentioned Open Meeting Law, with its strict provisions for conducting public business with the greatest possible transparency, generally serves the public sector well. However, it does, unintentionally, create problems in attracting top superintendent candidates to a process in which they are required to make their candidacies public.

There is a nearly $1 billion backlog of heating system repairs or replacements in the public school systems in the Maryland suburbs, according to a news investigation. School building records in the counties of Montgomery, Prince George, Howard and Frederick show hundreds of school HVAC systems are in need of replacement in the coming years.

Results from the new Smarter Balanced Assessment standardized test for Oregon students will not be used this year in compiling school report cards or teacher evaluations under a bill that has cleared the Oregon House.

Gustavo Balderas is the Eugene School Board’s unanimous choice to lead the district. Currently the superintendent of Huntington Beach's district in California, Balderas will take over for Sheldon Berman, who asked to leave the Eugene district after this school year.

The next superintendent of schools of the Illinois district will be John Ahlgrim. Currently the superintendent at Zion Elementary School District 6, he will take over from Superintendent Mary Perry Bates after she retires at the end of the school year.

Gryphon House, Inc.'s new activity book, “Getting to the Heart of Learning: Social-Emotional Skills across the Early Childhood Curriculum” by Ellen Booth Church, offers activities designed to connect social-emotional learning to the classroom curriculum with child-development tips, guidelines and support information for teachers.

Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his administration’s efforts to fix New York City’s troubled schools, describing those efforts as a cross between a war and a policing operation. The mayor's newly aggressive language comes as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is pushing an alternative vision for dealing with the city’s struggling schools that clashes with the mayor’s and chancellor’s philosophy.

A group of parents went before the Seattle Public School Board of Directors about the lack of action on school lunch and recess time. Since the beginning of the school year, parents and a collection of students have complained both times routinely fall well short of district guidelines of 20 minutes.

Brownies and doughnuts could be back in school bake sales under a measure the state Senate approved that would let districts raise money by holding events currently banned since they don't meet federal nutrition guidelines.

Dearborn school Superintendent Brian Whiston, the 2014 Michigan Superintendent of the Year, has been offered the position of state school superintendent. Whiston has been selected to replace Superintendent Michael Flanagan, who is retiring.

3/19/2015

At a time when the Washington Legislature is debating the best way to pay for basic education in K12 schools, it makes sense to start with the most basic element of all: classrooms. That means tackling an outdated school-construction model that has created inequity and inefficiencies across the state’s 295 school districts.